Wednesday, May 09, 2012

I enjoyed Yuruyuri, but didn't really notice Ookubo Rumi's voice as Chinatsu. It wasn't until Tsumiki in the current show Acchi Kocchi that I have realized Rumi really is a good seiyuu. She is making a moe character even more moe. And she does a quite different character well as Oda Nobunaga in the underappreciated Sengoku Collection. She has a bit of range and understands her roles.

She and four other young seiyuu -- Uesaka Sumire, Komatsu Mikako, Takamori Natsumi, Mikami Shiori -- do a radio show called A+G Next Generation Lady Go!! Each seiyuu hosts a different night of the week. Video of the broadcast is streamed. I caught one of Rumi's nights on NicoNico and was impressed by her fantasy, liveliness, and apparent self-aware irony. She seems like a dangerous character, lol. And oh, yeah: she's sexy as anything.

Hashihime

The "Hashihime" or "Bridge Princesses," are characters in the novel The Tale of Genji (Genji Monogatari 源氏物語）. They are daughters of a disgraced prince, living alone with him in a small house at Uji, outside Kyoto. They are important characters in the last ten chapters of the novel.

The Genji can be considered the first real novel in the history of the world. It was written around 1000 AD by a Japanese court lady known as Lady Murasaki, or Murasaki Shikibu.

I think contemporary Japanese literature, including anime and manga, continues to preserve aspects of the Genji, among them sensitive psychological observation, a general passion for romance, and romantic interest in young girls. The main hero of the thousand-page novel, Prince Genji, had a number of present and former girlfriends living in his palace, and basically abducted his principal wife Murasaki when she was ten, marrying her when she was around 15.

notes

-- all Japanese names are written in Japanese order: surname first, given name second-- I claim no copyright on anything in this blog, unless otherwise stated